pat dry
Ian Svenonius is such a sleeper underground forefather. His workmanlike dedication to his craft has birthed an impressive body of work, not only in music but in writing. To me, he represents the best of an era of a truly independent American underground. The quality is so high and yet his bands never ascended to a higher status, possibly by design, possibly for political reasons. See Nation of Ulysses, MAKE-UP, Scene Creamers, Weird War, etc.
Favorite track: Almost No One (Can Have My Love).
Brian Parker
This was my favorite album of 2020. Minimalist in approach, but maximized in sound - go ahead and crank “Lonely At The Top” on a good system. And it took me weeks to get “Rome” out of my head!
Echoes of Suicide, Prince, Link Wray, and the eternal Algebra Suicide. Those deep analog synth bass tones, that cutting guitar sound...really damn good. Catchy as hell.
Favorite track: Rome Wasn't Burned in a Day.
Escape-ism ... the found-sound-dream-drama ... the press-play and run away group ... the pre-recorded potentate ... the grieving widow of rock 'n' roll ... the cosmopolitan caveperson... could you sell a condominium to a cave-couple? Their psyche was informed by stalactites and spelunking; not sofas and straight lines.
It's like that with 'Escape-ism'-- Its a stomp-athon when the drum box is "on," as Escape-ism "re-purposes" leftover noise pollution to create sustainable models for future stomping and smashing, ripping and dripping.
Escape-ism. Writhe to the rhythm box. Pstomp to the psludge. Pounce to the pre-recorded perversity. Gasp to the groan of the tone-poem. Swoon to croon of the goon-tune.
Escape-ism. For fans of: pstomp, psoul, pskronk, psmashed pstuff, psmeared reputations, psullied psensibilities, & other psickening psounds.
"Introduction to .. Escape-ism" is profound, prophetic, perverse, and poetic… It’s introverted glitter, violence against the state, obsessive desire; it stomps on convention, shreds constitutions, clobbers pre-conceived notions of what a record can be.
Yes, Introduction to Escape-ism is a bite into a one-banana bunch.
A drum box, a guitar, a cassette player, and a single slobbering, sinful voice singing out…for a way out. Live, it’s a new paradigm of performance: raw, gestural, idiotic, sublime, revolutionary, poetic, faux naïf, unknowing, a drainage pipe that leads to who knows where.
In a world of make believe ... escape into reality with "Escape-ism"
Escape-ism is called "the found-sound-dream-drama," "the grieving widow of rock 'n' roll" , the "press play and run away group", the strrrripped down sound machine starring Ian Svenonius, star of Chain
& the Gang, singer in The Make Up, author of 'Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock 'n' Roll Group.” Its a one banana bunch, the gestural rock 'n' roll provocation which combines cave person poetry with beats and words translated incorrectly from hieroglyphs found in King Tut's triangle shaped record collection. Escape-ism is a bid at inciting longing for a past behind an IRON CURTAIN, and hope for a future in flames. Escape-ism -- hear it, fear it, cheer it.”
credits
released November 26, 2020
Escape-ism is Ian Svenonius
Voice / Electric guitar / Drum machine / Sounds: Ian F Svenonius
Percussion / Keys / Sounds: F Bermudez
Saxophone: Zumi
Guitar solo on “Lonely at the Top”: Cole Alexander
Recorded at Gaucho Studio, LA, CA
Produced and recorded by F Bermudez
Mixed by F Bermudez and Scott Cornish
All songs by I F Svenonius
Liner notes by Johnny Sincere
Portrait photo by Jen Dessinger